In case you're not clear on the geography and wonder where all the Colorado flood waters will go....

[A HERETIC I AM]

It is the Arkansas River drainage for the flood waters south of Castle Rock, Co;



And the Platte River for the waters coming off the Rockies north of there including Denver and Boulder;



There are not too many large reservoirs between the Eastern slope and Wichita and from what I can tell and recall from my travels, there are no major dams/reservoirs on the Platte between the Eastern Slope and where it joins the Missouri south of Omaha.

There are numerous small towns and several good sized cities that will see significant flooding as these waters make their inevitable trek toward the Mississippi.

Edited to add the map of the Platte and for accuracy.

[Warren DeMontague]

1. It's too bad we couldn't get them to go the other direction.

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. Exactly.

Fill Lake Powell and then Lake Mead.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Shit

In the meantime my mom was telling me of closed roads in Mexico and deaths

And there are major floods in Japan. Nope, we are not seeing the effects of climate change, at all

[Junkdrawer]

4. Time to get out of Dodge....

City.

[gopiscrap]

11. figuratively and literally.

I have heard that there were many in Colorado who chose not to leave....hope that's not the case.

[truebluegreen]

18. Most didn't have sufficient warning before the first flash floods came.

Many of those who can are now choosing to stay on.

But there are also many unaccounted for: maybe, we all hope, because they are isolated and have no means of communication. In Boulder County they evacuated more than 300 people from the mountain communities today and helped cut the list of those unaccounted for from over 700 to about 180.

[madamesilverspurs]

5. And this...

The South Platte River from northern Colorado

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. Kind of looks like the dividing line between the two....

is about the town of Castle Rock, eh?

[politicat]

6. Um, that's the flood from Colorado Springs. Boulder/Longmont is the Platte watershed.

So... Nebraska, stock up on the water and the sand bags.

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. Then I shall rephrase the OP. n/t

[beevul]

12. I'm not sure its going to be as bad as it could be on the platte river in NE...

I'm not sure its going to be as bad as it could be on the platte river in NE.

There is but a trickle of water in it, in the Kearney and grand island area. It is *very* close to being dry.


Crossing my fingers anyway, though we do need the water here in NE.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, A HERETIC I AM.

[Surya Gayatri]

10. Was born and bred in the Nebraska Platte River watershed.When that

deceptively flat and shallow stream bulks up from the spring thaw or heavy rains, better run for the hills.

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. Gratuitous self kick! n/t

[NickB79]

14. At the same time, those states are exceptionally dry right now

The floodwaters may cause damage now, but could help greatly to recharge groundwater supplies needed to keep irrigation and drinking water supplies flowing.

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. Not having followed the weather pattern too closely....

I want to ask, did the area from North Platte to Kearney get much rain out of this event? Or much of the Eastern portion of Co. as well as Kansas?

Wouldn't you agree that the amount of recharge would be minimal if there is just high river flows and no rain in an area?


I'm no hydrologist, by any means. It just strikes me as sort of obvious that if water in a river is flowing over, it isn't doing too much soaking in.

[truebluegreen]

19. Most of the rainfall came in the foothills of the Front Range.

An upslope wind pushed the saturated plume of moist air up against the mountains and pinned it there. So while it was raining on the plains it was not as bad.

[AngryAmish]

15. CAn I ask some dumb questions?

I have not been in that part of our fair land but I do not recall ever hearing of major rains in Colorado. I kinda thought it was pretty arid.

How did these rains start - is it a weird weather pattern? Are there season storms?

[A HERETIC I AM]

16. First of all, it's not a dumb question.....

secondly, while I am not a resident of Colorado, I can say that it is not entirely true that the state is "arid", as large portions of it are lush with forests. It is true however that the Western Slope of the Rockies tends to be drier as it approaches the Utah line. That entire segment of the US is typically fairly low rainfall.

Here's a link showing precipitation in Grand Junction, CO which is along I 70, about 30 miles from the Utah line.

Compare that to Vail which is pretty much in the heart of the Rockies, and then look at Denver, on the Eastern Slope.

Most of the moisture in weather patterns is lost over the high points of mountain ranges, and typically the Eastern side is drier, at least in the Western states.

But to have major rain and snow events on the Eastern slope in Colorado is not at all unusual.